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Back to Helen. The original Inuit word gave information and image of the wool and more about the yarn. Sounds like very precious indeed. Qiviuq Q.T.Although the basics may be different this expression covers the same meaning, imo. When you have to be on the qui vive in the wilderness the first important thing is to be quiet, alert.
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I've always thought of "on the QT" as being on the sly. and I've never heard nor read the qui vive thang.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Also in the more 'negative'(?) meaning it belongs to being careful?
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Also in the more 'negative'(?) meaning it belongs to being careful? nope. just on the sly.
formerly known as etaoin...
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I came across "on the q. t." in Ulysses, and had to look it up. I'll give the paragraph for context: All kinds of places are good for ads. That quack doctor for the clap used to be stuck up in all the greenhouses. Never see it now. Strictly confidential. Dr Hy Franks. Didn't cost him a red like Maginni the dancing master self advertisement. Got fellows to stick them up or stick them up himself for that matter on the q. t. running in to loosen a button. Flybynight. Just the place too. POST NO BILLS. POST 110 PILLS. Some chap with a dose burning him. Bloom is talking about a Dr Franks posting advertisements for treatment of venereal disease in the men's room. He is definitely using "on the q. t." to mean, "on the sly". Besides, just look in the dictionary: QT (also q.t.) noun (in phrase on the QT) informal secretly; stealthily: she'd better get there on the QT.
ORIGIN late 19th cent.: abbreviation of quiet .
on the quiet informal without anyone knowing or noticing; secretly or unobtrusively.
Last edited by Hydra; 12/02/07 01:22 PM.
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Oh woops.What I meant was when you 'go on the sly' you have to be extra 'on the qui vive'and vice versa (allright the words are out of use but still..); meaning the two are closely related. No big deal though.
Last edited by BranShea; 12/02/07 01:40 PM.
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the telling point here is that you wouldn't use the two expressions interchangeably.
if you tell me something on the QT, you're passing along some sort of secret; not particularly alert to what's going on around you; maybe gossiping, with your mind in a turmoil.
if you're on the qui vive, you're alert and listening.
-joe (nuances are important in language) friday
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 I understand this perfectly clear and maybe one day I'll tell you (on the Q.T.) why this gives me a hearty laugh.
Last edited by BranShea; 12/02/07 04:54 PM.
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According to the second of the two squibs in Notes and Queries on page 336: the verb is in the subjeunctive who may live?. According to the entry on qui vive in the Trésor de la Langue Française Informatisé, one of the earliest citations is in Thomas of Woodstock. 1419. Chronique du Religieux de St-Denys: "Interrogati secundum communem modum loquendi: Qui vivat, qui vivat? respondebant: Rex, regina et dux Burgundie, nomen Dalphini tacentes." (They were challenged in the usual manner saying: "Qui vive? Qui vive?" They answered "The King, the Queen, and the Duke of Burgundy," being quiet about the name of the Dauphin.) It's in the subjunctive there in Latin. Seems to me that on the Q.T. means quietly, whereas as being challenged with qui vive? one would speak up if one knew the password and could pronounce any shibboleths.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Has it come to this Faldage? Are you now quoting Dave Wilton and the Oxford Dictionary rather than giving the subject at hand some thought?
I gave it some thought and what I thought is that I would take the word of people who know what they're talking about before I would take the word of a couple of guys who, although reasonably intellegient, were merely voicing WAGs.
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